1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a technical field of: an information sending apparatus; an information sending method; an information receiving apparatus; an information receiving method; an information transmission system; an information transmission method; and an information recording medium. More particularly, the present invention relates to a technical field of: an information sending apparatus, an information sending method, an information receiving apparatus and an information receiving method capable of sending/receiving encoded information and encode processing information employed for the encoding; an information transmission system including the information sending apparatus or information receiving apparatus; and an information recording medium having a sending control program or a receiving control program recorded therein.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, music information or the like broadcast by employing broadcasting electric waves is received by means of a broadcast receiving set top box, and the received information is recorded in a recording medium such as optical disc by employing an information recording apparatus.
On the other hand, in recent years, in view of advancement of an image compression technique and a high-density recording technique, one movie or the like is distributed via broadcasting electric waves, and the distributed movie is recorded in an information recording medium with its high recording capacity such as DVD (optical disc with its recording capacity higher than a conventional CD (compact disc) by several times) or the like, for example.
In distribution of music information or the like as described above, there is a problem as to how copyrights in the music information or the like are protected. In this respect, conventionally, encoding has been carried out in both over a transmission channel from the set top box to the information recording apparatus and during recording into an information recording medium, and then distribution or recording has been carried out.
In recent years, music information or the like is often transmitted in a transmission mode in conformity to IEEE 1394 Standard (official name is “IEEE std. 1394-1995 IEEE Standard for a High Performance Serial Bus”.) between the set top box and the information recording apparatus. In this case, copyright protection has been often carried out between the set top box and the information recording apparatus based on DTCP (Digital Transmission Copy Protection) Standard that is a standard for copyright protection.
In the above DTCP Standard, the music information or the like encoded by employing predetermined encode processing information for encoding is transmitted from the set top box to the information recording apparatus. Further, the encode processing information itself is encoded, and is transmitted from the set top box to the information recording apparatus. The information recording apparatus is arranged to decode the encoded music information by employing encode processing information transmitted.
Conventionally, the encoded music information or the like has been transmitted in accordance with the DTCP Standard by employing the isochronous transmission mode in the IEEE 1394 Standard.
The contents of the above DTCP Standard are disclosed in detail by way of the DTLA ((Digital Transmission Licensing Administrator) over the Internet (URL - - - http://www.dtcp.com).
In the above conventional arrangement, the encoded music information or the like has been transmitted in accordance with the DTCP Standard employing an asynchronous transmission mode in the IEEE 1394 Standard. However, in the current DTLA, a transmission speed in information transmission in accordance with the DTCP Standard is merely allowed to use a speed identical to a reproduction speed of music information or the like after recorded. Thus, there has been a problem that music information or the like encoded by making best use of the characteristics of the IEEE 1394 Standard cannot be transmitted from the set top box to the information recording apparatus at a high speed.
In addition, in the above conventional arrangement, copyrights have been protected during transmission in accordance with the DTCP Standard. However, before encoding based on the DTCP Standard in the set top box and after decoding in an information recording apparatus, there is a possibility that music information or the like is not encoded. Thus, there has been a problem that copyright information is protected insufficiently at each stage.